We all know the feeling.  You draw the first few cards of your opening hand - no land.  You take a deep breath and figure " if these cards are all non-land, what are the chances the next three cards are also non-land?"  But alas, the mana gods are not smiling on you this day.  You are now stuck with seven non-land cards and are forced to redraw just six cards with no guarantee you will not have to take yet another mulligan.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="230" caption="When you take a mulligan your opponent effectively gets to play this card as many times as necessary."][/caption]

Drawing one or more less cards that your opponent can be absolutely devastating in both casual and tournament play.   It ruins the game for both players and is often completely unnecessary.  This "flaw" in the game can never be completely remedied, but it could be slightly relieved by a simple rule change.  How about:  Allow players to take a one free mulligan if they draw 7 non-land or all land cards.  If they somehow draw 7 non-land cards again, then they'd have to draw 6.  At that point they probably are playing with less than 20 land cards and deserve to get mana screwed once in a while.  Simple, fair and good for everyone!

"But Reinhart, if we did this people would only put 15 land cards in their deck!"  No, they wouldn't.   The chances of them getting to 4 or 5 mana would be way too sketchy, even after getting that guaranteed land card in hand.   Secondly, the recent trend of players cramming  24-28 land into their decks just to avoid this happening to them is just plain silly.

No one likes to get mana screwed/flooded and the game isn't fun against someone who is getting mana screwed/flooded.  If players were essentially guaranteed at least 1 land in their opening hand, both casual magic games as well as tournament play would be more fun and less dependent on avoiding bad luck.  It would also allow players to possibly take out one of those 28 lands they're stuffing in there to try to avoid the 7-of-a-kind catastrophe.  It would also make the later game (turn 5+) more fun because players aren't continuing to draw land cards every other draw.

Magic is a wonderful card game.  The entire land system works out most of the time.  But far too often it can be inherently not fun.  Drawing a land card on turn 9 when all you needed was a spell is not fun. Drawing 7 land cards in your opening hand because (ironically) you were forced to construct a 50% mana deck to try and avoid getting mana screwed is not fun. Frankly I cannot see a downside to letting players take a mulligan when they've obviously been stuck with a case of bad luck on the opening draw.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="180" caption="Reinhart after drawing 7 non-land cards."][/caption]

Granted, there is an art form to choosing the land cards in any deck.  Other games have taken "land choice" out of their philosophy and I think that takes something special away from the art of deck construction.  In Magic, you need to strike the right balance of "enough" and "not so many that you're drawing lands at inopportune times."  There are some great land-get cards, land-cycling cards and creatures that can be tapped for mana that can be used to try and offset the tremendous amount of luck that is associated with getting your mana together.  I do not suggest that we scrap the entire system, quite the contrary, I respect the "challenge" that it is to get out the right mana in the right quantities.  This is a major part of MTG.  I only suggest that we give people a break on their opening hand before any spells have been played, before any skill could possibly be implemented.

My local group of casual players has taken it upon themselves to use a house rule allowing players to take free mulliguns in the event of having only 1, 7 or zero land cards in their opening hands.  Particularly in multiplayer games,  I not only find it more sporting to duel a wizard without major mana issues but I find it to be infinitely more fun.